Doug Taylor

With one album under his belt, this LA-based rocker teams up with Dan Auerbach. If Head in the Dirt sounds a bit like early Black Keys, chalk that up to Auerbach’s enthusiasm and Khatib’s flexibility. Both sense that older blues and rock will inform what they do, but need not limit it. “Save Me” has […]

This tall drink of water is very talkative on stage, sometimes to a fault. The personality that comes through on record needs little embellishment. Steel’s been around musicians most of his life and logged some hardy hitch-hiking miles. “Time is a healer…time is death,” he muses sardonically on the title number. There’s an intelligence in […]

A couple of British stars, Mike Skinner (The Streets) and Rob Harvey (The Music), join forces in The D.O.T. Best known as a rapper, Skinner brings the funk and his singing is heartfelt when it’s not all that tuneful. Harvey handles most of the vocals with a pinched upper register that goes over better in […]

Jason Michael MacIsaac is the vision behind The Heavy Blinkers. This becomes clearer than ever with the personnel shift since the last album in 2005. Jenn Grant and Melanie Stone replacing Ruth Minnikin on most lead vocals is the most striking change. The backing is lusher than ever, at times competing with Grant’s gentle delivery, […]

This Moncton quartet keeps foot on the gas throughout its second album, a major label debut. Veteran producer Steve Rizun tied up any loose ends to the point of being almost too polished for some. Don Levandier, formerly of Ditchpigs, embraces this expanded audience with a powerful set of songs. “We might die young but […]

The flexi-sized Halifax combo played live shows for years, stoking curiosity about Eastern European melancholy and 1930s Parisian jazz, before hitting the studio. Now well into its recording career, Gypsophilia’s love of variations keeps the sound surging, well, forward like the label says. Muted trumpet, violin, acoustic bass and electric guitar veer off for solos […]

Jazz buffs have been anticipating this debut album from the winner of the Thelonius Monk Competition. A Miami native of Haitian heritage, McLorin is the whole package: a captivating singer and inventive pianist with a throwback’s sense of where jazz got a spark in the first place. “You Bring Out the Savage in Me” had […]

This Halifax hip-hop crew has taken some time to refine a diverse lot of samples and ear-grabbing rhymes. The album is distinctive for the number of guest voices, including Becky Siamon and Ria Mae, and the gentle music beds toughened up with staccato ’90s-style raps. Prime Minister Harper gets his harshest musical dressing down to […]

Raven Singer (Stony Plain) Tyson accidentally strained the soothing baritone out of his voice a few years ago, so it can be a shock to hear him now. Fortunately, this didn’t stop him writing in the cowboy milieu he’s embraced since the split from Sylvia Fricker 40 years ago. Vast prairie vistas viewed mostly from […]

A visionary warning about the escalating military economy from President Eisenhower came at the end of his second term. The old general sounds pretty wise now. As a backdrop to the music on the Caretakers’ “Love is Lost,” it leaves a lasting impression. Then there’s “On Becoming Noam Chomsky”, comparing the tireless dissenter to Socrates. […]

This is a re-emergence for Morgan as a songwriter. It’s the first album of mostly originals by the former Figgy Duff lead singer in a decade. Recorded in the UK and Newfoundland, Play On has more than a dozen musicians stepping in and out. Jim Bennion’s guitar is a dead ringer for Mark Knopfler on […]

Sackville, NB’s favourite adopted son travelled to Brandon, Manitoba to record these 16 tracks, average length two minutes 25 seconds, which entertain an admirable variety of notions. Some of the shorter tunes feel like demos that will likely be expanded upon later. “Growing Like a Garden” packs rhymes such as “alarming” and “farming” into a […]